Promoting Health Equity Through Trauma-Informed Care: Critical Role for Physicians in Policy and Program Development

Trauma-informed care has emerged as an important model to address the pervasiveness of traumatic experiences across the life cycle and their association with significant adverse medical and psychiatric consequences. To achieve health equity, in which all people have the opportunity for health, it is crucial for physicians to become comfortable with a neurobiopsychosocial understanding of trauma and how to provide optimal trauma-informed care. Given the pervasiveness of trauma exposure, and its impact on individual and community health, this paradigm shift in adult health care delivery systems requires physician engagement at every stage of development and implementation.